ICS Daily Devotions
A Different Kind Of Love
John 13:34 (NKJV) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Between the two kinds of love, we are more familiar with Phileo love, but we need to fully understand Agape love, because God’s command is for us to love with Agape love.
Phileo love is an emotional love. It means to be a friend to another, to be fond of, to have or show affection for someone or something. It requires attention, which is based on the qualities in someone you find admirable or attractive. It feeds on response and can’t survive long without it, whereas Agape love gives as long as it receives, and is an unconditional love (https://www.preceptaustin.org/love-phileo).
Most of us are used to operating in Phileo love, only reciprocating love when we are loved instead of proactively loving others unconditionally because men are selfish and self-centred. For example, Phileo love is expressed when we are proud of our children because of their achievements. However, it can be gender, birth-order or achievement biased, and it stops when there are unmet expectations, a sudden loss of admiration, or the cessation of benefits and leverages. Because this is the only kind of love that we have typically known and experienced before hearing of the Gospel, many of us wrongly believe that God has the same kind of love towards us, that He will stop loving us and abandon us when we fail Him or don’t measure up to His standard, or He has favouritism based on gender, race, and background.
The kind of love that God has towards us is Agape love, which is the undefeatable benevolence and unconquerable goodwill that always seek the highest good of the other person, no matter what they do. It is self-giving. It gives freely without asking for anything in return and does not consider the worth of its object. It is a love by choice.
This unconditional love is written all over the Bible. God initiated the plan of salvation, conceiving it well before the foundation of the world by establishing the Abrahamic covenant so He could resolve the sin issue that separated us from Him. It is a love by choice so that everyone can be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. God demonstrated His love for us through the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He has chosen not to leave us or forsake us through the establishment of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood, and to remember our sins no more. Aware of the weakness of our flesh, He has chosen to see us in Christ so that we will always be seen as righteous, holy, and blameless. As all these were done out of Agape love while we are still imperfect, it means He doesn’t consider our worth because He has chosen to love us regardless of our current states. That is Agape love.
How to love?
